A short training-style talk about hiring bias: what it is, why it harms recruitment, and practical steps managers can take to detect and correct bias in interviews and team decision-making. The speaker gives concrete guidance (normalize bias checking, lead by example, use objective criteria, run candidate audits) and an example scenario involving an interviewer biased against applicants from a specific university.
Chapters
I am sure that you have heard of bias and you may have done some kind of training in the area. Simply put, hiring bias is the purposeful or accidental assumptions made when hiring candidates. Because bias can be sneaky when it comes to hiring, it's important to have a basic understanding of the potential harm and how best to combat it. Hiring should be equitable so every candidate is given the same consideration for your roles. You have to look at your decisions and the actions of your team with a discerning eye, making sure that bias is removed or overcome within your evaluation process. What happens if you don't? There is a strong likelihood that you will miss out on great talent weeding out candidates for the wrong reasons. You should work with your team to ensure you have objective hiring criteria and an evaluation process that does not leave room for bias. Put checks and balances in place and take steps to recognize bias both in your team and in yourself. Create a safe space where feedback is encouraged and everyone stays open to receiving that feedback. This is best done when you lead by example in open forums. Give and request feedback. Show that you are amenable to receiving constructive feedback. Take note of a few ways to recognize bias. The first is the most effective but the hardest. Listen and accept. Chances are if you have bias, which we all do, someone has noticed it. If you aren't constantly calling yourself out and no one else is either, there's a problem. So make sure you normalize bias checking as part of your process and that means making yourself the filter so all information is through you. You don't want your team to address such sensitive issues on their own, and you also want to know what's going on so you can be the most effective leader. Here's an example scenario. During lunch, Ryan spoke about his distaste of a local university. He expressed a belief that graduates were lesser intellectually. Matt thought he might be joking, but he also knew that a good number of graduates from that school applied to their company, specifically their team, and Ryan was an interviewer. After lunch, Matt comes to you with his concerns. Here's what you do and I say do to distinguish from feel. This is a time where you have to put your feelings aside, including however you may feel about Ryan. First, thank Matt and give affirmation that he did the right thing. You want him and others to know this is expected behavior. Then you will task someone on your team to pull a report of your candidates who attended or graduated from said university. The rest is up to you. Look through scorecards where Ryan was an interviewer and see if there is anything that shows his bias against the school that might impact his ability to be an interviewer. If not, yay. You've done an excellent job of training interviewers to work around their biases. If you do see a pattern of implicit or explicit bias, you just need to work with Ryan and other appropriate parties to take the steps to address and overcome his bias. Get comfortable, as this is something you will experience time and time again. So remember, bias matters not just because it will harm your hiring ability, but it specifically matters to you hiring managers because you're responsible for the bias you allow to impact your team.
